It's been 11 years since 50 Cent released his critically-acclaimed debut Get Rich or Die Tryin'.

Over a decade later the Queens rapper is very much alive and one of the wealthiest musicians in New York, proving it's a mantra that has worked well for him.

Digital Spy caught up with Curtis Jackson III to talk about his seventh studio album Animal Ambition, working with Dre and the music industry's ever-changing rules.

For your new album Animal Ambition, you've released a new song and video every week until it's officially out. Why did you decide on that release strategy for this album?
"I decided on it because of the shift in how long it takes to position music properly. We usually launch a record and it would take six to eight weeks for it to be positioned in the top five. Now it's taking 20 weeks to get there. Because of technology and the internet, the very first time a person hears the song a blogger has already decided at that point whether they like it or not. Radio is taking longer to get there than the actual audience is, who are already past it before it even hits a radio.

"So I said I'd put out songs and sustain the interest with a new song and new video every week. So I'm imprinted on their mind because I have something new in front of them, keep them on 50 Cent instead of me being scattered. Our audience is youthful, they have a low attention span and they will forget you and be like, 'What have you done for me lately?'"

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Do you feel that the audience is in a more powerful position than ever before because of that?
"Yeah, but in some ways their influence is the blind leading the blind. When you see bloggers write really big comments it's by the guy who thinks he is an actual expert on music. A lot of us don't make music that considers themselves the biggest critics of it."

There's also usually a lot of behind the scenes business that some people don't realise affects release strategies and single choices.
"Oh definitely - the delay in me releasing this record is down to the business. Street King Immortal was to be my final requirement for my contractual obligation to Interscope Records. I went through the auditing process as this was to be the last record and to see exactly where we were and all kinds of additional imagery was coming up because of choices away from music. The company's focus shifted from selling records and the main priority was Beats by Dre."

Why did you decide to switch imprint labels within the same music group?
"They didn't want me to leave the Universal Music Group as a whole because then they would have had egg on their face seeing the records perform the way they are performing now. We are still in the same family, just not through Interscope. People misinterpret me expressing my frustration at points because I still have all the success that I had with Interscope Records with that crew. But you've got to understand that the team isn't there anymore, they've let about 90 people go since that period. It's a whole new team now."

On Animal Ambition you have mentioned that 'Smoke' is one of your favourite tracks. How was it getting into the studio with Dr. Dre again?
"It was cool. A lot of material on Animal Ambition was recorded in New York on the East Coast but I was on the West Coast when I recorded that song for the first time. Initially I recorded it for Dre for his project Detox, but then I came back and listened to it again and I was like, 'Let me re-write or re-work it', because I wanted to see what it sounded like if I tried to write the song by myself.

"A lot of times with Dre, everything they make is for him and he is keeping it (laughs), then the label starts to make us at war because we're both in the audio category. In reality the biggest record in my career Dre produced - 'In Da Club', man. I had the opportunity to work with Timbaland and he produced 'Ayo Technology.' I think it's obvious where our interest in music comes from."

Talking of Dr. Dre's Detox... That album has almost become a myth in itself - are we ever going to hear it?
"I don't think so. I think that when it became a priority to secure Beats as a company they were saying it made more damage for a record to come out than it would help when they had so much positive stuff happening.

"Beats is a billion dollar business so do you take the icon that's connected to it and turn it into someone that's not so exciting because you released a record that didn't take off like a rocket? When you see them not continue to waste a record it is only a luxury to Dre. The system wants to push something out. No-one else has the power within Interscope to hold a record back - if it was Lady Gaga then that record would be going out."

Back to your album - what's the meaning behind the title Animal Ambition?
"It's a song on the album. It is an untamed desire to win. I get high off these situations; I get high off being right. When you walk into the studio I'm not the guy listening to the snare by itself clap, clap, clap, clap, pop, bing, pop. I need to hear something that has the right pattern in it. I'll write the melodies and the words to it and know it's a hit.

"Knowing it's a hit is more valuable than you making it. It's about hearing a hit record, timing the hit record, getting the right producers in who have a higher possibility of walking out of that room with a hit. Dre and Timbaland are those guys for me. It's their particular sound; Dre's is harder, his production is harder and my style of writing kind of matches it."

You've got a second album out later in the year; Street King Immortal will be out in the autumn. How did you divide the music between the two collections?
"I had so many ideas for the project that I had to leave the concept because I was going round in circles. I was writing the same song over. I wrote that record three times. My albums have to be balanced. I had so much time that when I came across production they were like, they're all good but which one do you want? I picked the better one out of three. Street King Immortal came closest concept-wise to a 2014 version of Get Rich Or Die Tryin'."

Will the album still feature 'We Up,' 'My Life' and 'New Day' because they were great collaborations?
"They won't. I had so many ideas over that time period; the album will still feature Eminem. They will go down as ideas that came off the project."